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having anxiety does not mean you are broken

Truth: some days the message I feel inspired to share is also the message I most need to hear that day.

Today is one of those days.

“Having anxiety does not make you broken.”

This morning I had a panic attack.

Then when I was finally starting to feel better, the tidal wave that is a panic attack came crashing down on me again.

Cue round two.

And as I was sitting here, literally just staring out my window, just willing the rush of intrusive thoughts to go away because I felt so broken....

A voice of clarity nudged a tiny corner of the panic away with the message: just because you feel broken that doesn’t mean you are broken.

I don’t always find a tid-bit of non-panic to help cease an attack. Ok, I’d go so far as to say almost never. Usually it’s all about riding out the wave and willing myself not to be pulled under for indefinite periods of hours or days.

So not only was this thought of reason - “just because you feel broken doesn’t mean you are broken” - so very welcome in and of itself, but it is also a message I so often forget in my hardest moments.

I think most of us forget.

And it’s not just anxiety that doesn’t make you broken.... most who live with mental illness tend to hold the belief that mental illness makes them broken. I disagree. Just because your brain doesn’t function like the generic factory standard, that doesn’t make it broken. Your brain was just programmed in a way that means you experience the world differently. And even when it sucks, it doesn’t make you wrong or broken.

Maybe none of this is resonating. Maybe today you’re feeling pretty broken anyway. You know what? That’s ok too. It is ok to feel broken. In fact, having days where you feel broken actually makes you pretty normal if you ask me!

Whatever you are going through today, may you find a way through. xoxo